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For the past 3 years I have been working on my first indie game with a few friends but had to learn how to do everything myself, from coding, to creating models in blender and how to use Unity.

After a while I found a few people to help but they're either young or busy and I would like to find dedicated members for my game who won't leak or share things online.

I'm new to this and I would love some advice on where I can recruit members for my team who are loyal and dedicated to my game and it's cause.

(also if I posted this in the wrong place or said something odd I'm sorry, I don't know where else to ask as I've been stuck trying to find help for a good while now)

My biggest worry is that someone will steal or copy my idea if I post anything about the game online(we've had a few scares like that before) so it's the biggest thing for members to be loyal and not leak anything.

CraftyMaelyss
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  • People are assholes, most will leak stuff if they can, make them sign a NDA. – Bálint Jul 30 '17 at 09:21
  • Would I need to get a lawyer to write up a contract just to be safe too? – CraftyMaelyss Jul 30 '17 at 09:30
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    https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/17663/1-idea-99-execution/17685#17685 – Vaillancourt Jul 30 '17 at 09:51
  • @CraftyMaelyss you should, but if you don't have enough money for that, there are onlime templates, and those aren't that hard to fill out – Bálint Jul 30 '17 at 10:19
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    You throw a bunch of interesting words like 'loyalty' and 'dedication'. They really mean nothing without a context, and this context should be created by you. "If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea", as they say. Learn how to show the beauty of the sea, and hope that somebody sometime will be able to see the same beautiful sea you are seeing. – metamorphling Aug 01 '17 at 07:07
  • @metamorphling Nice as that sounds, you obviously haven't read Machiavelli. – Engineer Aug 01 '17 at 07:56
  • @ArcaneEngineer still does not prevent me from expressing my vision. I honestly think that one can't demand, or even expect loyalty. Just surprised at how author expects other people to be dedicated to his ideas and follow him just because. As for the legal side of the problem, of course it should be handled by papers, no matter whom author is dealing with. – metamorphling Aug 01 '17 at 08:16
  • My biggest worry is that someone will steal or copy my idea if I post anything about the game online. That worry is counter-productive. You want as much about your game's progress and concepts "leaked" as possible. The more transparent you are, the more hype you generate, which will help you recruit more competent people and build a fanbase even before your first playable release. – Philipp Aug 01 '17 at 08:20
  • @Philipp Counterproductive iff you have the production capacity to move things forward at a fast enough rate. If you don't, you are spitting into the wind, giving key dynamics away to those who will make better use of them in a shorter timeframe, beating you to market. That all depends on just how worthy your ideas are, of stealing. Not many are. – Engineer Aug 01 '17 at 08:27

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My experience with people is that you need to assure that in some form, whether financial, career-wise or whatever, their security lies with you. That is, bind them to you, in every way possible. You need a watertight contract holding them to their word, and the ability to enforce it when the time comes. NDAs are only as good as your ability to pay to have them enforced. Otherwise it's a bluff that will be assumed as being such.

Option #1: Do everything you can, by yourself, until you get investors and thus can pay to have contracts drawn up, enforced etc. Lot of work, but the payoff is peace of mind and zero communications overhead... which itself can take lots of time. You will have to be extremely efficient in your use of time in order not to spend the next 5 years on said project. You could mix in option 3.

Option #2: Find people you genuinely trust, people you have known for a long time. But this can also get tricky when they want to exit, as you don't want to look like you're trying to control their lives, ruining your non-work relations. But you may not have the relevant job titles among your social/family circles.

Option #3: Keep work modular at every stage, so that you never have to let anyone in on the bigger picture. Problem here is having solid engineering and specifications experience to be able to separate the project that way, and ensure things will work once integration time arrives, otherwise you could be severely out of pocket with little to show for it. With this option you can use either volunteers or paid pro's, since compartmentalising the work keeps you safe from blunders.

Option #4: Accept the risks and move forward. You will still need protections in place, however, if only a contract for which the threat of breach is sufficient to deter bad behaviour (Not my ideal choice).

Engineer
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